country's wealthy? it's important that the president do this for the basic reason that people in this country know what they're voting for and if they decide against. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from minneapolis. when you stand with middle class workers, you can't lose, and he ain't no ordinary joe. joe biden proved that last night. and as winston churchill once said, i like a man who grins when he fights. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. these are the folks who talk about 47% of the american people being unwilling to take responsibility. it's about time governor romney takes some responsibility. >> the vice president keeps the hits coming after his knockout debate with paul ryan. >> stop talking about how you care about people. show me something. >> richard wolffe on the education of congressman paul ryan.

>> ronald reagan -- >> now you're jack kennedy? >> ronald reagan -- >> "now's" terri o'neal on the romney ticket's disaster for women. >> if the romney/ryan ticket is elected should those that believe abortion should remain legal be worried? >> david cay johnston on ryan's sixth study lie. >> can you guarantee this math will add up? >> absolutely. six studies have guaranteed. >> and what's more disrespectful? lying to america or interrupting a guy who's lying to america? >> it was openly contemptuous and disrespectful. >> karen finney on the right wing freak-out over joe biden's knockout performance. >> ever felt that way where you just want to deck somebody? >> an obnoxious drunk. i think somewhere during the debate he took ridlin. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. what did we see? we witnessed a schooling on the issues by vice president joe biden last night. it really was the shot in the arm the democrats and the

progressives were hoping for. after watching mitt romney get away with lie after lie last week, the vice president wasn't putting up with it from a guy who's number two on the republican ticket. >> when we equivocate on our values, when we show that we're cutting our own defense, it makes us more weak. it projects weakness. when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to attack us, more brazen in their atax. >> with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarky. >> why is that say? >> not a single thing he said is accurate. >> biden never took his foot off the gas. in one brief sentence, the vice president summed up the empty rhetoric of the romney campaign. >> stop talking about how you care about people. show me something. show me a policy. show me a policy where you take responsibility. >> many obama supporters were disappointed the president didn't hold mitt romney accountable for this 47% comments and his economic policies in general.

vice president joe biden made up for it last night. he used 68 seconds to say exactly what needed to be said about the romney/ryan view of the middle class in this country. >> romney said, no, let detroit go bankrupt. we moved in and helped people refinance their homes. governor romney said, no, let foreclosures hit the bottom. but it shouldn't be surprising for a guy who says 47% of the american people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. my friend recently in a speech in washington said 30% of the american people are takers. these people are my mom and dad, the people i grew up with. my neighbors. they pay more effective tax than governor romney pays in his federal income tax. they are elderly people who, in fact, are living off of social security. they are veterans and people fighting in afghanistan right now who are, quote, not paying any taxes. i've had it up to here with this notion that 47% -- it's about time they take some responsibility here. and instead of signing pledges to grover norquist not to ask

the wealthiest among us to contribute to bring back the middle class, they should be signing a pledge saying to the middle class, we're going to level the playing field. we're going to give you a fair shot again. we are going to not repeat the mistakes we made in the past by having a different set of rules for wall street and main street. >> that sound bite right there by joe biden made paul ryan look out of his league a number of times in the debate, but especially right there. when paul ryan criticized the stimulus plan, biden's response was devastating. >> i love my friend here. i'm not allowed to show letters, but go on our website. he sent me two letters saying, by the way, can you send me some stimulus money for companies in the state of wisconsin? we sent millions of dollars. >> you did ask for stimulus money, correct? >> sure he did. >> on two occasions we advocated for constituents applying for grants. that's what we do. we do that for all constituents.

>> i love that. i love that. this is such a brad program and he writes the department of energy a letter saying the reason we need this stimulus, it will create growth and jobs. his words. and now he's sitting here looking at me. >> we do that for all constituents? that's what paul ryan said? so in other words if somebody comes into his office and says, hey, i need $20 million for this project, it's just a quick stamp of approval? ryan's part of the problem in washington, and he's trying to blame the democrats for it. at certain points the vice president was openly fact checking paul ryan's comments in realtime. >> this is a plan that's bipartisan. it's a plan i put together with a prominent democrat senator from oregon. >> there's not one democrat who endorses it. not one democrat who signed the plan. >> our partner is a democrat from oregon. >> he says he does no longer support -- >> we put it together with the former clinton budget director. >> who disavows it. >> this idea came from the clinton commission to save

medicare chaired by senator john breaux. here's the point, martha. >> which was rejected. >> if we don't -- >> that was a crucial point in the debate right there. here's a guy trying to talk about a plan that has bipartisan support and joe biden stood up for the american people in the truth and wouldn't let him get away with it. that's what made it a great debate. i don't care how many times someone is interrupted if the interrupt is in the service of the truth. democrats and progressives have had enough of the lies that the republicans have been throwing out in this campaign season. when ryan started lying about the romney tax plan, joe biden was right to point out just how the math does not add up. >> you can cut tax rates by 20% and still preserve these important preferences for middle class taxpayers. >> not mathematically possible. >> it is mathematically possible. it's been done before. it's precisely what we're proposing. >> it has never been done before. >> it's been done a couple of time, actually. >> it has never been done before. >> increase growth --

>> now you're jack kennedy? >> ronald reagan -- republicans and democrats have worked together on this. i understand you guys aren't used to doing bipartisan deals. >> we told each other what we were going to do. when we did it with reagan we said, here are the things we're going to cut. >> did you hear paul ryan just say, i understand that you guys aren't bipartisan? does he follow the news? does he follow his own party? a record number of filibusters in the senate? paul ryan can't fill in the details on this plan because there aren't any. ryan's fatal flaw is really in his dishonesty. it showed. when ryan told personal stories about programs like medicare and social security. >> my mom and i had my grandmother move in with us who was facing alzheimer's. medicare was there for her just like it's there for my mom right now who's a florida seniosenior. after my dad died we got social security survivors benefits. it helped her go back to college in her 50s where he started a small business because of the

new skills she got. she paid all of her taxes on the promise that these programs would be there for her. we will honor this promise. and the best way to do it is reform it for my generation. >> that explanation right there is exactly why there's no march in the street. there's no effort in this country to change the very programs that we have for the elderly in this country. they are earned benefits. they are not entitlement programs. of course, if ryan really had these programs that really meant a lot to him, he wouldn't want to privatize everything and get his hands on it like social security and turn medicare into a voucher program. joe biden was much more effective by directly addressing voters who rely on these programs. the seniors. >> it's any senior out there, ask yourself, do you have more benefits today? you do. if you're near the doughnut hole, you have $600 more to help your prescription drug cost. you get wellness visits without co-pays. they wipe all of this out and medicare becomes insolvent in

2016. >> paul ryan lost roots with the working class district and the working class he said he came from. we think it was privilege. biden still holds on to those roots in spades. the ryan team knows the candidate got schooled and they're making excuses. of course they are. they say paul ryan wasn't prepared for the vice president's laughter. romney campaign spokesman michael steele told chris moody of yahoo! news the laughter certainly was not something that we expected. really? the romney supporters on the "wall street journal," the editorial board, what do they do? resorted to calling joe biden a bully? give me a break. so if you tell the american people the facts about what's going on with our government, hey, you're nothing but a bully. the right wingers don't like it when they're not allowed to lie all day long without consequence. now, this is what i really love. rnc chairman priebus being the biggest cry baby of them all. >> quite frankly i was embarrassed for the vice president. i mean, the laughs.

we counted 82 times that joe biden interrupted paul ryan. i don't know -- >> paul ryan was interrupting, too. >> i don't know who his debate partner was, i don't know, maybe it was ed schultz from msnbc. i'm not sure. >> well, i can tell you, mr. chairman, i would be proud to be the vice president's debate partner after a performance like that because he hit it out of the park. so i'll just take credit for it. i know the vice president watches this show. he stood up for the middle class last night. he fought for the truth. he showed a difference between a leader and a liar. and as for the "wall street journal" saying that the debate was a disservice to voters, let me tell you what a disservice is to america. a couple of candidates that go out there with citizens united money and lie to the american people about every policy, about every issue that's out there and shift in the wind whenever they possibly can to confuse a bunch of people. the truth is, lie after lie is not good for democracy, but they don't care. all they care about is political power. and as for being polite i will

take the liberty to speak for the liberal community in this country tonight. we are damn sick and tired of being run over by the top culture in this country. being polite to the righties when they're lying? no. that's out of bounds. one more thing. mr. president, i think joe biden gave you the template for next week. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. who won the debate? text "a" for vice president joe biden. text "b" for congressman paul ryan. to 622639. always go to our blog and leave a comment at ed.msnbc.com. the results coming up later on in the program. let's bring in the vice president and executive director of msnbc.com and msnbc political analyst richard wolffe. richard, great to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. >> what does -- what does biden's performance really mean to the entire race, to the base, to the tone, everything?

what does it mean? >> i think we saw a level set there last night where the vice president not only did that fact checking, you know, obviously he was combative and he laid out an argument there, but there was something bigger going on. and i know we get into the blow by blow and the punch and the counterpunch, but really the only measure of these vice presidential candidates, no matter what their track record and vice president biden has been very busy inside the white house, but really the only measure for voters is can you imagine them being a heartbeat away from the presidency? and everything i've heard from conservative talk echo chamber today doesn't deal with that. they complain about the rules or about the interruptions or they say he made a good argument. not one of them say, even try to make the case, that paul ryan is ready to be president the day after the election. and that's where vice president really won this thing. and if you look at uncommitted voters, as opposed to republicans, the base who are already locked down, uncommitted

voters yesterday looked to those two candidates and said, one was a vice president. >> you know, the tone of the campaign, there's been so many lies out there. did joe biden have to do that last night? we showed a couple of exchanges right there where he just jumped in. it was time after time he was correcting ryan. do you think he had to do it? >> well, i think you have to do it because the romney campaign is trying to completely rip up its script and start all over again with no time to actually engage in the argument. and so you have to do it right there in the debate. i don't think people care about the interruptions at this point. they know this is a feisty election. it's hard fought. they're used to watching tv when frankly people don't have que s queensberry rules. if your best moment in the debate was about benghazi and opponent's best is about the

economy, you have the opponent who got the better of you. >> richard, does this change anything for tuesday night, debate number two with the president and mitt romney? >> i think this is a pause. i think it stops the media narrative which got way out of control. frankly, it was way out of control before the debate, as if the election was over. it was way out of control after that first presidential debate saying it was over in the other direction. here we've got a very close election. it was close before. it will be close right up to election day. the vice president, i think, has leveled the media narrative to a point where we can actually see the two candidates going toe to toe next week. >> all right. richard wolffe, thanks for your time tonight on "the ed show." appreciate it. >> thank you. >> remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow and on facebook. we want to know what you think. last night paul ryan was confronted on the extreme anti-choice position. the romney ticket presents. terri o'neal on the war on women. next. stay with us. [ horn honks ]

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coming up, republicans freak out over vice president joe biden's big win. karen finney joins me on that. paul ryan defends his tax plan but not very convincingly. david cay johnston takes a crack at it. the war on women was alive and well last night with revealing answers to a question about abortion. terri o'neal joins me next. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter. using the #edshow.

welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. mitt romney continues to walk a tightrope over abortion rights. and now his running mate has reignited the war on women.

>> if the romney/ryan ticket is elected, should those who believe that abortion should remain legal be worried? >> we don't think that unelected judges should make this decision that people through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination. >> the translation, yes, you should be worried. ryan wants to legislate roe v. wade on a state level. and severely limit access to abortion services. yet, just days ago, mitt romney told "the des moines register" newspaper that he would not push for any anti-choice measures. >> there's no legislation with regards to abortion that i'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda. >> and, of course, the romney campaign quickly walked that back. and allowed ryan to articulate its new vision for women's rights. >> the policy of a romney

administration will be to oppose abortion with the exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. >> but if creating policy was solely up to paul ryan, there would be no exceptions. the legislation he co-sponsored proves it. vice president biden called him out on it. >> my friend says that he -- well, i guess he accepts governor romney's position now because in the past he has argued that there was rape, enforceable rape. he's argued in the case of rape or incest it would be a crime to engage in having an abortion. i just fundamentally disafree with my friend. >> joe biden is no left wing ideologue when it comes to abortion. biden told the audience last night he believes in the catholic church's teachings that life begins at conception, yet biden stressed he does not believe in imposing his faith on others. his record, well, it proves

that. the truth is, mitt romney has embraced an extreme anti-choice agenda. if we are to believe all this stated positions on this issue, what's he going to do? he's going to defund planned parenthood. he'll sign legislation reversing roe v. wade and he'll put extremists on the supreme court who will overturn roe v. wade. now, is that what you want? to that point, vice president biden reminded folks that the next president will likely get the opportunity to potentially turn the tables on women's rights in this country. >> the court, the next president will get one or two supreme court nominees. that's how close roe v. wade is. just ask yourself, with robert bork being the chief adviser on the court for mr. romney, who do you think he's likely to appoint? >> isn't the demeanor of the vice president very interesting when he doesn't have to debunk all the lies and he's got a

serious issue like this? joining me now is the president of the national organization for women, terri o'neal. terri, great to have you with us tonight. all i can say is after that exchange is, wow. did paul ryan reignite the war on women? where are we now? >> paul ryan supports personhood amendments. this is -- this is legislation that would decree that life begins at conception, ed. and the truth is that if this goes into effect, that actually would have the effect of criminalizing all abortion. paul ryan has said he thinks there should be exceptions for forcible rape, but not exceptions for women who are impregnated by rape. tens of thousands of women, by the way, are impregnated by rape every year and paul ryan's real belief is that he doesn't think that they should have access to abortion. and the other thing is, i think we really need to remember, one in three women will have an abortion by the age of 45.

it is a common and necessary aspect of women's reproductive health. and what paul ryan wants to do is make that reproductive health care unavailable to women. it's completely, very unpopular. >> now, just days ago, paul ryan said his position on abortion and romney's were unified. are they from what you can see? >> actually i think day are and unified to be completely opposed to women having access to a full range of reproductive health care. abortion, they don't want women to have access to that. they also would cut off women's access to birth control without question. mitt romney has repeatedly said he would defund planned parenthood. paul ryan co-sponsored legislation and voted for legislation to do just that and, in fact, to defund family planning clinics generally. that's contraception. paul ryan has opposed the part of obama care that makes contraception available to women without a co-pay.

but we know that when women have access to reliable birth control, they have better health outcomes generally. so, yes, i think romney and ryan are very much on the same page and it's very much opposed to women's access to health care. >> you think the vice president did an effective job talking about the obama administration's records on women's rights? i mean, do you think the president said what the women in this country wanted to hear? >> i do, ed. i think that i really so respect joe biden for being very honest and sincere about his own personal beliefs and for respecting and honoring the rights of women to have legal access to necessary abortion care and birth control. that said, may i just say that i really wish that women's issues would come up more in these debates. frankly, obama's positions and biden's positions are so good for women, especially when you

compare them to how bad the romney/ryan positions are. i would really love to see that coming out more in the debates. >> well, we'll see if the polls swing in the gender gap, again, as they had tightened in recent weeks. terry o'neill, thanks for joining us on "the ed show." appreciate it. romney and ryan twisted themselves into knots over taxes and showed up again last night big time. david cay johnston will join us to tell us what it's all about. and republicans, they didn't like losing so they cried. not fair! really? karen finney and i will talk about it, next. stay with us.

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visit progressive.com today. good to have you back with us. thanks for watching "the ed show" tonight. now it's time to do some math. of course, paul ryan flunked the math test last night in front of about 50 million people. >> and you're going to increase the defense -- >> we're just not going to cut the defense budget -- >> you're going to increase it $2 billion. $2 trillion. >> so no massive -- >> no, we're saying -- >> -- defense increases? >> you want to get into defense now? >> yes, i do. because that's another math question. i want to know how you do the math and have this increase in defense spending. >> $2 trillion. >> you don't cut defense by $1 trillion. that's what we're talking about. >> what national security issue -- >> who's cutting it by $1 trillion? >> ryan simply can't explain his 20% tax cut. bottom -- >> you have refused, and, again, to offer specifics on how you

pay for that 20% across the board tax cut. do you actually have the specifics or are you still working on it and that's why you won't tell voters? >> different than this administration, we actually want to have big bipartisan agreements. you see, i understand -- >> do you have the specifics? do you have the -- do you know exactly what you're doing? >> look at what ronald reagan and tip o'neill did. >> no specifics? >> what we're saying is lower tax rates 20%. start with the wealthy, work with congress to do it. >> you guarantee this math will add up? >> absolutely. six studies have guaranteed, six studies verified this math adds up. >> ryan promises the numbers, they'll add up. someday. my math teacher would not have accepted that answer and i don't think yours would have, either. but when ryan couldn't come up with the numbers, he started naming past presidents. and that didn't go over very well, either. >> you can cut tax rates by 20% and still preserve these important preferences for middle class taxpayers. >> it has never been done

before. >> it's been tone a couple of times, actually. >> it has never -- >> jack kennedy lowered -- >> now you're jack kennedy? >> ronald reagan -- >> let's bring in david cay johnston to sort it out. pulitzer prize winning journalist and author of the book "the fine print: how big companies use plain english to rob you blind." david cay, great to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here. >> isn't ryan supposed to -- you bet. isn't ryan supposed to be the brain of the romney campaign and we're lacking specifics? i mean, wasn't that a poor explanation? >> well, yes, and let me give you his idea of a study. he said there are six studies. three of those six studies are blog posts and one of them is by a research assistant at aei, which is one of the big ideological marketing organizations that pitch you their view of the world just the way companies advertise other products. but blog posts, those are studies that prove things?

that's hilarious. >> why doesn't the plan add up? why doesn't his so-called plan for america, the 20% cut, add up? where's the flaw? >> well, it does add up for the very rich. if you listen very carefully to what romney always says, he says he's going to cut rates 20% and then he's going to see to it that those at the top don't pay a larger share of the total tax burden. well, that means that they're going to get a huge decrease in their tax bill. that's the important element. that is the ryan/romney plan, it is to create dynastic wealth which i think would be devastating to having our history of entrepreneurialism and strivers in this country and allow people who are already rich to collect income and interest dividends, capital gains, tax free or as romney has put it, not taxed on the first $200,000 to $250,000. ryan's plan is completely tax free, get rid of the capital gains tax, get rid of the gift tax, create dynastic wealth, turn america into 18th century

france, and we all know how well that ended. >> david cay, what about the loopholes? middle class americans out there keep hearing that loopholes are going to be closed. what do you think they're talking about? they haven't been specific on that, either. >> no, and that's part of the troubling idea. what they're very specific about is cutting taxes. they won't talk about exactly what are we going to do? and without knowing that, we have absolutely no idea. are they going to stop the use of offshore investing and total deferral of income for private equity managers like mitt romney was when he was the sole owner of bain capital? and could have taken advantage of that? they won't say, so we have no idea. but the big numbers would be in taking away the middle class' 401(k) or other retirement savings plans, health insurance, and the mortgage interest deduction. >> yeah. let's clear up this about social security. play this sound bite, if we can,

real quick, fellows. this on social security in the debate, it came up last night. >> let's talk about medicare and entitlements. both medicare and social security are going broke and taking a larger share of the budget in the process. will benefits for americans under these programs have to change for the programs to survive? mr. ryan? >> absolutely. medicare and social security are going bankrupt. these are indisputable facts. >> david, what about that? is social security going bankrupt? i know the answer. i want to hear it from you. >> social security, last year, turned a $95 billion surplus. it has a surplus built up, taxes we paid in advance for our benefits, of well north of $2 trillion. the only reason social security's future isn't strong is we haven't had wage growth and haven't had job growth. and ryan wants to get rid of social security. he is on the record in so many places saying that, that it is absurd of him to argue otherwise.

he wants to get rid of medicare as we know it, replace it with a system that only helps the rich. >> david cay johnston, great to have you with us on this friday evening on "the ed show." thanks so much. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> ever felt that way where you just want to deck somebody? >> call the whambulance. fox news is freaking out about joe biden. >> it was openly contemptuous and disrespectful. >> karen finney, on whether it's more disrespectful to lie to america or to interrupt the guy who's lying. and bain capital is sending american jobs overseas and mitt romney is refusing to step in. >> our american dream got ripped out from underneath us. and not because of any reason other than just pure greed. >> tonight, the massive protest in freeport, illinois, where they are warning the country about mitt romney's vision for america. >> before i even knew anything about bain capital, i actually kind of liked mitt romney.

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welcome back to "the ed show." breaking news out of colorado. you're looking at pictures of the exterior of the obama campaign denver headquarters. police are telling the "denver post" there were shots fired at the window at the facility. there were people in the office when the incident occurred. the incident occurred at 3:00 p.m. local time. police say that they have a description of a possible vehicle of interest. according to a police spokesperson, it looks like it was one shot that was fired into the structure. we'll keep you posted as more information comes to us here at "the ed show." again, the "denver post" reporting that shot was fired at the obama campaign headquarter in denver, colorado, at 3:00 this afternoon. no one was injured in the shooting. and they do have a description of the car. we'll have more for you as it

comes in. republicans are furious at vice president joe biden over his performance in last night's debate. it's a clear sign he won the debate. anchors at fox news were so angry they compared vice president biden to an obnoxious drunk? >> joe biden came across like a guy that you meet at a cocktail party for some political event. an obnoxious drunk who's loud and boisterous and interrupts every conversation. >> i notice you guys were giving away bourbon to people over there. >> it's the home of bourbon. >> i wonder if joe had some before the debate. >> fox news expert debate analysis was on twitter. three fox news hosts suggested that biden had been drinking or compared him to a drunk during the debate. to be clear, vice president joe biden does not drink. although in 2008, biden did say, "there are enough alcoholics in my family." after the drunk talk was done came the excuses.

gretchen carlson had this one ready to go at 6:00 a.m. this morning. >> being from the midwest, as paul ryan is as well, there's such a thing as midwestern sensibilities and midwestern politeness and, oh, yeah, you go in front of me. that's what paul ryan was doing. >> then the excuses turned to anger. a few minutes later this happened. >> you ever felt that way where you just want to deck somebody? i mean, i'm sorry. i think if you're paul ryan last night that's how you feel because you could tell that he didn't want to come across as being overly aggressive and knew he was going to be the young guy there and he should show respect to the elder statesman. but my goodness. >> my goodness. i understand how you feel, gretchen. that's how a lot of liberals felt about dick cheney. fox news also noted how disrespectful the vice president acted last night. >> i don't believe that i have ever seen a debate in which one participant was as openly disrespectful of the other as

biden was to paul ryan tonight. >> it was disrespectful for paul ryan to lie during the debate last night. joe biden set the record straight by going after him. and fox news, they didn't like one bit of it. >> condescending, smug, morally and intellectually bankrupt man. >> corruptness times 10 gazillion. >> it's technically called debatis. >> mean at times. >> rude, condescending, disrespectful. we all know that's never happened on fox news. >> and i don't think we should pretend otherwise. >> this -- >> brett, let me finish my answer. >> i know you don't like the filibuster. >> well, i'm trying to answer your questions and you keep on interrupting. >> you want to change washington, mr. president. now we're doing it the same way, right? >> look -- >> getting wrapped up and i don't want to interrupt you.

>> brett baer interrupted the president of the united states 16 times during that interview. but he wasn't disrespectful, was he? fox news shouldn't be giving anyone a lecture in civility. joining me now is former dnc communications director and msnbc political analyst karen finney. karen, good to have you with us tonight. >> hey, ed. >> sum it up. how did joe biden do last night? was he disrespectful? did he handle himself? was it over the top? >> you know what, ed? can i just say, what a bunch of wimps. last week when our guy didn't do so good, we took our lumps. we said it straight-out that the president didn't do so well. romney, you know, had a good night. we just took it and we moved on. what are these guys doing? they're like, wah, he was mean to our guy. how do they think paul ryan is going to do in front of ahmadinejad or putin if he can't handle sitting on the stage and having somebody call him on his lies? i mean, that's ridiculous. >> great point. karen, what's more disrespectful? lying to the american people or

biden, the vice president, interrupting paul ryan? >> well, and -- lying to the american people, but i can understand, you know, remember, there's this double standard. it's very inconvenient for these guys when someone is able to come to them with the facts and it's not something that fox news ever does with these guys. they let them get away with murder basically. i mean, how many times did biden say, i've got the letters? you're opposed to the stimulus, here are the letters when you asked for it. i was there with kennedy -- sorry, i was there with reagan. they did have details. you don't have details. the problem ryan had and this is, again, your point at the top was right, that's how you know he won is that now they're whining about the style and they can't argue on the substance. >> yeah. he was smiling too much. you know, he just can't smile in these debates. >> i mean, what is that? >> well, i think that joe biden was smiling just kind of communicating with the liberal community in this country that, hey, the guy next to me is really lying and i just want you to know i'm getting a big kick

out of it, i'm not going to get him get away with it. >> right. >> you know, republicans also attacked debate moderator martha raddatz. let's take a look at this. >> when the moderator allowed one candidate to absolutely run roughshod over the conversation. >> it was interesting that every time she seemed to interrupt was, well, to bail out joe biden. >> don't you think we need replacement refs at this point, karen? don't you think we just got to get some new people in there to do -- >> oh, yeah. >> the thing i liked about it is that this is a reporter, a professional reporter who is following up on her instincts and the righty couldn't take it. that's how i see it. yo your thoughts. >> she started with a tough question to the vice president about benghazi, by the way. here's the thing about joe biden. he came prepared, had his answers, knew his facts. this is the double standard we've seen from republicans.

if obama is ahead in the polls, if he's up in the poll there's a serious theory about the polls. if the job numbers are good there's a conspiracy theory about it though the data is there. they attack stephanie cutter for calling them out, calling the benghazi attacks political when romney, himself, said he would exploit that kind of opportunity. he said it, himself, in that same 47% video. it's a double standard. >> it is amazing what you can do when you have the facts on your side. karen finney, great to have you with us tonight. thank you so much. >> thanks, ed. a real slap in the face to american workers is what it is, and mitt romney, he won't do a thing about it. it's the bain port story. it's big. it's next. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles,

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show on sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday noon to 3:00 and on progressive talk stations around the country. follow me on twitter @edshow and like "the ed show" on facebook. kinda blistery. like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. i was a firefighter for 24 years. but, i have never encountered such a burning sensation until i had the shingles. i remember it well. i was in the back yard doing yard work. i had this irritation going on in my lower neck. i changed shirts because i thought there was something in the collar of the shirt irritating my neck. and i couldn't figure out what was going on. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. i always thought shingles was associated with people... a lot older than myself. i can tell you from experience, it is bad.

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tonight in our survey i asked who won the debate? 98% of you say vice president joe biden. 2% of you congressman paul ryan. i want to assure the american public tonight watching "the ed show" this poll was not skewed in the least. we didn't cook the books. coming up, if he really wanted to show american pride, and if he really cared about american middle class families, mitt romney would try to save american jobs. but he won't do it. the sen soda disgrace. bainville, next. bob...

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who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. the thing for me, personally, that was even more humiliating, though, was that the week before they came, they took the american flag down that flew outside the plant and the week after they left, they put it back up. like we're supposed to be ashamed that we're americans. >> welcome back to "the ed show." i want america to consume this story. this is who mitt romney is. those were workers from sensada technologies, a car sensor manufacturing company in freeport, illinois, describing the painful process of losing their jobs to chinese workers. the company, majority owned by bain capital, set to close its doors, lay off its u.s. workers and outsource production to china by the end of this year.

in protests, workers have set up a camp called bain port just across the street from the plant many devoted their lives to. three protesters were arrested monday for attempting to block trucks removing equipment from the plant to ship them to china. now, the romney camp said the governor has had been no longer responsible for bain decisions but doesn't mean he's not going to be profiting from bain's cost cutting through outsourcing. "the new york times" reports that romney owns about $8 million worth of bain funds that hold 51% of sensata shares. if sensata saves money by closing the freeport plant, that could add money to mr. romney's trust accounts now or after the election. so, folks, what's going on in freeport, illinois, gives us, i believe, a snapshot of what mitt romney's economy will look like. this is the model he created. this is the model that he believes in. this is his america.

and this is the model that made him wealthy. good for him, bad for the workers. romney can try to distance himself all he wants. he can talk tough on the road about china and out on the campaign trail, but talk is cheap. and his refusal to act, his refusal to even listen to these sensata workers shows his complete and i mean utter disregard for the families being affected by this move. make no mistake, this is not just about freeport, illinois. this is about the future of american jobs and if mitt romney is elected president of the united states, put your seat belt on, there will be more of this. let's bring in the president of the united steelworkers, leo gerard. and i want to point right off the top tonight that this is a nonunion plant in freeport, illinois. mr. gerard, what do you make of this story? first of all, taking down the american flag, forcing workers to train their chinese replacements who make only 99 cents an hour. is this just the perfect story

of the race to the bottom line and what it looks like in america? >> i think two things, ed. i think, first, it's exactly the way you characterize it. this is the real mitt romney who doesn't give a good darn about workers and this is really a disgrace to the country to let this happen. he has $8 million invested in this, but ed, he's also got ten other chinese investments. and you remember we did a story not very long ago about another company that had bain investments from '98 to 2000 which was mitt romney's personal money. in this case, these workers, i want to correct two things that you said. first of all, they're scheduling the closure of the plant, to add insult to injury, they're closing the plant on november the 5th. one day before the election. they thought they could get away with this and it wouldn't spill over on mitt romney. these workers reached out to us and we're telling their story all over america. secondly, the workers in china make 90 cents an hour working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and

they're staying in the company's bunkhouses. three and four young women to a room. inadequate food, inadequate housing. this is how he's going to make his money. this is a disgrace. this tells you who real mitt raomney is and why he won't disclose his taxes. this company is now headquartered in bermuda and i'm convinced that his i.r.a. money will either go to the cayman islands or one of his swiss bank accounts. this is why he won't disclose his tax returns because he has ten other of these funds in china. the other thing i want to make sure we say is that in the earlier case between 1998 and 2000, that's when mitt romney's personal money was in china before we did the trade deal with china to let them into the wto. and once he learned how to do this stuff in china, he then turned his company into a consulting firm that taught other companies how to move to china. this is a disgrace. he ought to lose the election just on this issue. >> mr. gerard, what about the

fund-raising tape behind closed doors that was revealed by "mother jones," the infamous 47% comment? mitt romney was talking about jobs in china and a factory over there. is there any connection here in this story? >> this is a second story. the story that you did a few weeks ago about the other plant, that was the story of the plant that he went to see in between 1998 and 2000 where he told the story of young women working in sweatshop conditions, and food wasn't good. they had barbed wire to keep them out. in that case there was 12 to a dorm sleeping in bunkbeds that only had plywood on them. that was mitt romney's first foray into china. on that secret tape, that's the plant he's talking about that he went over there to buy. then in addition to that, ed, when he talks about he's not responsible for the 47%, he is going to try to make more people fall into that category